


the history books forgot about us

by celinamarniss



Series: Retirement [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone lives, Gen, Happy AU, He and Tenel Ka raise rancors on a ranch on Dathomir, Jacen didn't go bad, Jaina is probably an admiral at this point, cherry picking what i want from the books and ignoring everything i hate, meta poorly disguised as fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 20:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8462269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celinamarniss/pseuds/celinamarniss
Summary: Jedi apprentice Asha is sent on a quest to find the legendary Luke Skywalker. She thought he was a myth!





	

The sun was low in the sky when Asha finally spotted the house she was looking for. The local who’d offered her a ride out of town had declined to drop her any closer, just letting her out and pointing up a dirt trail that ran through a grassy plain. He’d insisted that that was how things were done. So she had walked. Trudging through the monotonous landscape reminded her of Jedi exercises for patience and endurance and she surrendered her senses to the Force, letting it flow through her as she made the trek. She’d traveled for a few hours along the path before she spotted the simple structure at the trail’s end. She checked her map again. She didn’t know where she had expected to find the legendary Jedi master, but it wasn’t a small house tucked underneath a grove of blooming trees in the middle of nowhere.

A little over a month earlier, the togrutan apprentice had stood nervously in front of the Jedi High Council, awaiting their judgment. Master Malia stood behind her, her quiet, confident presence reassuring Asha. She had reached the end of her apprenticeship and had passed all the trials her master had set her.

“For your final test,” Master Wyn said. “Master Malia has recommended that you seek out Master Luke Skywalker.”

“Luke Skywalker?” she gaped at the council. She thought he’d died ages ago. He was practically a myth.

“He doess exisst.” Master Sebatyne seemed amused.

“One of your teachers, Master Ben Skywalker, is his son,” Master Malia reminded her. _Of course._ Asha wished the floor would open up and swallow her. The Jedi Temple was full of families, but that didn’t necessarily mean that masters with the same name were related. She now recalled the rumor, though her instructors had never spoken of it. Her friend Lona, who knew Jedi history backwards and forwards, was never going to let her live this down.

“I apologize, Masters. I thought he was dead.”

“He’s alive, alright,” Master Solo laughed. She belatedly remembered that Master Anakin Solo was also related to the legend.

“Master Skywalker’s location is a secret that only the Jedi know,” Master Wyn said. “Your task will include discovering that location and traveling to seek Master Skywalker’s blessing. Finding Master Skywalker is a tradition and many apprentices like yourself have made the journey.”

It hadn’t been easy. She’d spent weeks in the Temple library pouring over old records and maps. She wasn’t permitted to take any of the Order’s ships, so she’d had to find her own way across the galaxy. She’d taken public transports, hitched rides from NR ships, and even paid a shady trader to fly her the last leg to the planet. It had been a difficult trip, but Asha was proud to find she was up to the task.

The planet where she had finally hunted down Master Skywalker seemed as far from the Core as you could possibly get. _Waypoint wasn’t even a proper name for a planet,_ Asha thought. Waypoint’s capital could barely be called a city, and the sleepy towns she had traveled through weren’t much to speak of. She had finally been able to find someone who pointed her in the direction of this particular house, far out in the countryside, so far that even the locals wouldn’t drive her there.

A wide porch wrapped around the house, perfectly positioned to catch the breeze. There was an old woman with silver-white hair sitting on the porch, working on something spread out across a table. Asha assumed the old woman was practicing some sort of local craft, until she stepped on the porch. The woman was cleaning and reassembling a vicious looking blaster.

“Old habits,” the woman said in response to Asha’s surprised expression.

Asha gave her a shallow bow. “Excuse me, mistress, I’m looking for someone...”

The woman barely glanced at her before she called out: “Someone to see you, Farmboy!”

“I—I’m not looking for a farmer,” Asha stuttered.

“You got lucky,” the old woman said. “He was out racing speeders all morning.”

“Who—” Asha began, but stopped as the front door slid open and a man as old as the woman stepped out onto the porch.

His face lit up at the sight of her. “Welcome, young apprentice,” he said. She straightened instinctively, sensing his power in the Force, and looked carefully at the face behind the white beard.

“...Master Skywalker?”

He shot at bemused look at the old woman, who just quirked her lips. “They always look so shocked,” he said.

“You don’t look like your holos anymore,” she said. “Neither do I.”

“You’re still beautiful, though.”

The old woman snorted. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Skywalker.”

Master Skywalker grinned.

“Master Skywalker, I am Jedi apprentice Asha Tala.” She bowed low to the founder of her order.

“It's nice to meet you, Asha,” Master Skywalker said. “This is my wife, Mara.”

Another legend from the founding of the Order. “Master Jade Skywalker.” Asha bowed low to her too. There was a whole history session on the Skywalkers taught at the Academy; it was surreal to be standing right in front of them.

“You’ve traveled a long way,” Master Skywalker said. “How about something to eat?”

Master Skywalker led her through the door, his wife rising to follow them. The house was larger than it first appeared, with four wings wrapped around a central garden. It wasn’t richly decorated and instead had a comfortable, lived-in look. Master Skywalker had been a great hero of the New Republic even before he’d founded the Jedi Order (this time she’d done her research), but there was no way to tell that from his modest house. They passed an ancient blue-domed astromech droid that whistled cheerfully at them. What the Skywalkers needed with an astromech out in the country was a mystery. Their destination was a cozy kitchen in the far wing of the house that was filled with the smell of a softly bubbling soup.

“Surro stew? Again?” Master Jade Skywalker complained.

It smelled amazing to Asha, who suddenly realized how hungry she was.

“You don’t like it, you cook next time,” Master Skywalker replied. Master Jade Skywalker sniffed. It had the feel of a well-worn argument.

Master Skywalker poured each of them a serving into ceramic bowls and Asha dug in hungrily. As soon as she finished, she studied the Jedi Masters, who were quietly clearing their own bowls.

“We know you have questions,” Master Jade Skywalker said, though not unkindly. “Spit it out.”

“Why did you leave the Jedi?”

Master Skywalker put aside his bowl and folded his hands on the table. “Asha, I was the first Jedi after the purge,” he began. “I founded the Academy and led the Order for decades. Everyone in the galaxy looked to me whenever they had a crisis that only a Jedi could solve. That wasn’t always a good thing, though I tried my best. The Jedi Order needed to learn to stand on its own without me. If it couldn’t learn to function without me, it would have eventually collapsed.”

“The political situation was more complicated than that,” Master Jade Skywalker said. “But all of that’s ancient history now.”

“But why do you live all the way out here? Couldn’t you have retired to Coruscant?”

Master Skywalker sighed. “At the time it seemed best to disappear. To remove temptation from the galaxy, the Jedi order, and myself, too. It was hard for me to resist stepping in as well.”

“It wasn’t a healthy situation,” Master Jade Skywalker said darkly.

“Besides, it isn’t good for one person to have that much influence. Remember the Emperor,” he and Master Jade Skywalker exchanged a look.

They were old enough to remember the Empire, and the records had said that Master Skywalker had met the Emperor and his wife had worked for him. It an awfully long time ago; to Asha it was just stories like everything else.

“But the Jedi know where you are,” Asha pointed out. “They sent me here.”

“The Jedi Order’s moved on without me now,” Master Skywalker waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “How _are_ things at the temple?” he asked, changing the subject. “We get all the news out here, but I want you to tell me what things are like for the apprentices.”

Asha told them about the years she’d spent at the Academy training, about her Master and the other instructors, and about the trials she’d recently completed. The Skywalkers were good listeners and asked thoughtful questions. She talked until the exhaustion from her travels caught up with her, and then Master Jade Skywalker led her to a guest room where she fell asleep almost instantly.

\\\

The garden in the center of the house had several meditation spaces, and in the morning Asha took advantage of the quiet space. When she felt clear and centered, she wandered back through the house. There were a number of guest rooms, as if the Skywalkers expected large groups of guests at a time. In the kitchen she found a plate of nuts and cheese already laid out for her.

She had just finished her breakfast when Master Skywalker poked his head around the door. “Asha! Come outside. Let me take you for a ride.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker.”

“Call me Luke, Asha. This isn’t the Jedi Temple.”

The collection of top-of-the-line racing speeders Master Skywalker had in a shed behind the house was definitely _not_ something one would find in the Jedi Temple.

“They look dangerous,” Asha said.

“Jedi do not fear death, apprentice. Though they may fear dismemberment. That’s only natural,” he chuckled to himself. Asha wasn’t sure what was funny about that. “Besides, I don’t think the universe would dare risk Mara’s wrath.”

He picked out a luxury two-seater that was clearly built for speed. Asha didn’t really care about speeders; his enthusiastic explanation of the vehicle’s model and power was wasted on her.

Master Jade Skywalker emerged from the house to see them off. “Don’t get yourself killed,” she told her husband. “Remember, that’s my job.”

He kissed his wife. “As if I’d ever forget.”

The speeder streaked across the plains, the landscape she’d trekked through flashing by in a blur. Master Skywalker drove fast, but not recklessly. He seemed completely relaxed behind the speeder controls, and sitting beside him, Asha forced herself to relax as well. Eventually, the terrain changed, the plains giving way to hills and then to dramatic mesas and valleys. Master Skywalker parked the speeder at the edge of a plateau that gave them a magnificent view of a valley below. He soaked in the landscape as they sat quietly.

Asha finally broke the silence. “Why did Master Malia send me all the way out here to get your blessing?” The question had been bothering her for weeks. 

“Tell me about your trip here, Asha,” Master Skywalker said. She suspected he was making a point, like her Master did when she wanted Asha to work something out on her own, and so she told him the story. He listened intently, asking a few questions here and there. When she had finished he said: “You acted as a Jedi out in the galaxy on your own, proving you have what it takes to serve the Order.” He turned to look at her and it was as though he could see straight into her. Asha resisted the urge to squirm under his gaze. “You don’t need my approval,” Master Skywalker said. “You’re a fine Jedi. The council will be proud to award you a knightship when you return.” He smiled warmly at her. “Remember the Order is just an organization of individuals, and they make mistakes. You can be an asset to that organization. You’ll make mistakes too; learn from them. And know when to step away.” His smile grew wistful. “I don’t exert any influence over the Jedi anymore, but I like to meet the people who serve in the Order. Mara says I’m just nosy.”

He started the speeder’s engine again. “That’s enough nonsense from an old man for now. Let me show you the river falls before we go.” Later, as they headed back to the house, he added: “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, but I suspect you’re eager to get back to Temple for your knighting ceremony.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker. If you don’t mind—”

“It’s Luke, Asha! And yes, Mara and I will drive you back to the capitol tomorrow morning. She’ll call tonight and arrange transport for you.”

“Thank you, Mast—Luke.” Meeting a legend was weird, Asha reflected, but it was kind of nice, too. Another thought occurred to her. “Was Master Malia sent to find you too?”

Master Skywalker laughed. “Oh, yes! She was very impatient and irritated with the whole set-up. She reminded me of myself when I was a young Jedi.”

Asha couldn’t even imagine it. Master Malia, _impatient?_ Master Skywalker grinned at her again. “The universe isn’t quite how you imagined, is it?”

“Not at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> title from "Samson" by Regina Spektor


End file.
